MoDRE 2011 - The International Workshop on Model-Driven Requirements Engineering (MoDRE)

Model-Driven Requirements Engineering (MoDRE)

http://cserg0.site.uottawa.ca/modre2011/

Gunter Mussbacher, Carleton University, Canada
Pablo Sanchez, Universidad de Cantabria, Spain
João Araújo, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
Ana Moreira, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal

Model-Driven Development (MDD) is a new paradigm for software development where models are no longer simple mediums for describing software systems or only facilitating inter-team communication. In MDD, models become first-class citizens, and a software system is obtained through the definition of different models at different abstraction layers. Models of a certain abstraction layer are derived from models of the upper abstraction layer by means of automatic model transformations, providing faster and more reliable results.

MDD processes that explicitly include requirements models are rarely found as the main achievements of MDD have been related to the design and implementation levels. Nevertheless, Requirements Engineering (RE) could also benefit from model-driven techniques. For instance, model transformations may be used to ensure consistency between different kinds of requirements models (e.g., goal models, scenario models, domain models), to automatically construct initial system or architectural models from requirements (e.g., by deriving a more detailed UML model from a goal or scenario model), or to increase separation of concerns (e.g., MDD solutions may be applied more concisely to RE models with clearly separated concerns).

This inaugural Model-Driven Requirements Engineering (MoDRE) workshop provides a forum to discuss the challenges of MDD for RE. Building on the success of MDD for design and implementation, RE may benefit from MDD techniques when properly balancing flexibility for capturing varied user needs with formal rigidity required for model transformations as well as high-level abstraction with information richness. MoDRE intends to identify new challenges, discuss on-going work and potential solutions, and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of MDD approaches for RE with the help of a case study problem that is used during the workshop to stimulate discussions and to apply MDD approaches for RE.